Hamels’ excellent effort goes unrewarded

Cole Hamels is so aware of the situation he’s in, he doesn’t even feel a need to talk about it. He knows everybody understands. On the day-to-day scale, Hamels is aware that he’s almost always going to have to face an ace. In May alone, he’s matched up against Matt Harvey, Francisco Liriano and Stephen Strasburg. But even on the few days, like in Friday’s 4-1 loss to the Rockies, when he isn’t battling head-to-head against a big name, Opening Day-caliber starter, he runs into a hot arm like Chad Bettis.